Metasploit Community showing three hosts, two of which were compromised by an exploit |
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| Developer(s) | Rapid7 LLC |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 4.1 / October 18, 2011 |
| Development status | Active |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| Type | Security |
| License | BSD |
| Website | www.metasploit.com |
The Metasploit Project is an open-source, computer security project which provides information about security vulnerabilities and aids in penetration testing and IDS signature development. Its most well-known sub-project is the Metasploit Framework, a tool for developing and executing exploit code against a remote target machine. Other important sub-projects include the Opcode Database, shellcode archive, and security research.
The Metasploit Project is also well known for anti-forensic and evasion tools, some of which are built into the Metasploit Framework.
Metasploit was created by HD Moore in 2003 as a portable network tool using the Perl scripting language. Later, the Metasploit Framework was then completely rewritten in the Ruby programming language.[1] In addition, it is a tool for third-party security researchers to investigate potential vulnerabilities. On October 21, 2009 the Metasploit Project announced[2] that it had been acquired by Rapid7, a security company that provides unified vulnerability management solutions.
Like comparable commercial products such as Immunity's Canvas or Core Security Technologies' Core Impact, Metasploit can be used to test the vulnerability of computer systems to protect them, and it can be used to break into remote systems. Like many information security tools, Metasploit can be used for both legitimate and unauthorized activities. Since the acquisition of the Metasploit Framework, Rapid7 has added two open core proprietary editions called Metasploit Express and Metasploit Pro.
Metasploit's emerging position as the de facto exploit development framework[3] has led in recent times to the release of software vulnerability advisories often accompanied by a third party Metasploit exploit module that highlights the exploitability, risk, and remediation of that particular bug.[4][5] Metasploit 3.0 (Ruby language) is also beginning to include fuzzing tools, to discover software vulnerabilities, rather than merely writing exploits for currently public bugs. This new avenue has been seen with the integration of the lorcon wireless (802.11) toolset into Metasploit 3.0 in November 2006. Metasploit 4.0 was released in August 2011.
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The basic steps for exploiting a system using the Framework include -
This modularity of allowing to combine any exploit with any payload is the major advantage of the Framework: it facilitates the tasks of attackers, exploit writers, and payload writers.
Versions of the Metasploit Framework since v3.0 are written in the Ruby programming language. The previous version 2.7, was implemented in Perl. It runs on all versions of Unix (including Linux and Mac OS X), and also on Windows. It includes two command-line interfaces, a web-based interface and a native GUI. The web interface is intended to be run from the attacker's computer. The Metasploit Framework can be extended to use external add-ons in multiple languages.
To choose an exploit and payload, some information about the target system is needed such as operating system version and installed network services. This information can be gleaned with port scanning and OS fingerprinting tools such as nmap. Vulnerability scanners such as NeXpose or Nessus can detect the target system vulnerabilities. Metasploit can import vulnerability scan data and compare the identified vulnerabilities to existing exploit modules for accurate exploitation.[6]
In October 2011, Rapid7 released Metasploit Community Edition, a free, web-based user interface for Metasploit.[7] Metasploit Community is based on the commercial functionality of the paid-for editions with a reduced set of features, including network discovery, module browsing and manual exploitation. Metasploit Community is included in the main installer.
In April 2010, Rapid7 released Metasploit Express, an open-core commercial edition for security teams who need to verify vulnerabilities.[8] Built on the Metasploit Framework, it offers a graphical user interface, integrates nmap for discovery, and adds smart bruteforcing as well as automated evidence collection.[9]
In October 2010, Rapid7 added Metasploit Pro, an open-core commercial Metasploit edition for penetration testers.[10] Metasploit Pro includes all features of Metasploit Express and adds web application scanning and exploitation, social engineering campaigns, and VPN pivoting.[11] Metasploit Pro is available as a 7-day trial.[12]
Metasploit offers many types of payloads, including:
The Opcode Database is an important resource for writers of new exploits. Buffer overflow exploits on Windows often require precise knowledge of the position of certain machine language opcodes in the attacked program or included DLLs. These positions differ in the various versions and patch-levels of a given operating system, and they are all documented and conveniently searchable in the Opcode Database. This allows one to write buffer overflow exploits which work across different versions of the target operating system.
The Shellcode database contains the payloads (also known as shellcode) used by the Metasploit Framework. These are written in assembly language and full source code is available.